AN Interior announces the Top 50 Architects and Designers of 2022

Top Tier

Now in its fifth iteration, AN Interior’s Top 50 recognizes the best North American architecture and design companies working in interiors today. Each year, AN’s editors assemble a lineup that attempts balance—from smaller, emerging practices to larger, established firms; from design centers in New York and Los Angeles to cities across the continent; from high-end projects to budget-conscious commissions. What matters is the attention and creativity these teams deliver, and what follows is fashioned from the images and words they use to describe themselves. These outfits demonstrate a commitment to both craft and materials, and their efforts result in spaces that combine richness with comfort. Above all, this diverse listing aims to recognize talent known and about-to-be-known: While these pages contain many familiar practices, about half are new to this list. We are watching their work—and you should, too.

Hill Country Wine Cave by Clayton Korte (Casey Dunn)

Adjaye Associates

New York; London; Accra, Ghana

Adjaye Associates strives for an architecture that enriches daily life and meets the diverse needs of the communities it serves. Notions of place-making, identity, memory, and meaning are central to the office’s design process.

adjaye.com

 

Architecture Research Office

New York

Architecture Research Office (ARO) is a diverse collective united by a collaborative process, commitment to accountable action, and social and environmental responsibility. The office works with leaders and communities to design projects that reveal the hidden potential within architectural and urban constraints.

aro.net

 

Ashe Leandro

New York

Established in 2008, Ashe Leandro approaches each project—whether it is residential or commercial, furniture or product design—with a unique vision integral to the office’s design philosophy, as it embraces “instinct, ingenuity, and humor over traditional design convention.”

asheleandro.com

 

Assembledge+

Los Angeles

Founded and led by David Thompson, Assembledge+ pursues an architecture that is driven by a commitment to collaboration and craftsmanship, with the goal of creating enduring environments that are user-focused, innovative, and sustainable.

assembledge.com

 

Bernheimer Architecture

Brooklyn, New York

Bernheimer Architecture creates dignified spaces through contemplative research and considers the pragmatics of building. In the studio’s sustainable and resilient architecture a thoughtful use of form, materials, and systems leads to designs that respond to context, program, and budget.

bernheimerarchitecture.com

 

Bestor Architecture

Los Angeles

Founded in 1995, Bestor Architecture is recognized for the inventive integration of architecture, urbanism, infrastructure, and landscape at multiple scales. The office’s varied, creative, and aesthetically progressive body of work expands the territory of architecture into atmospheric urbanism.

bestorarchitecture.com

 

Brooks + Scarpa

Hawthorne, California; Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Brooks + Scarpa is a collective of architects, designers, and creative thinkers dedicated to enhancing the human experience. The firm is a multidisciplinary practice that produces innovative, sustainable, and iconic buildings and urban environments.

brooksscarpa.com

 

Clayton Korte

Austin, Texas; San Antonio

The places that capture imagination are products of strong vision, responsiveness to context, intentional design, and a symphony of interdisciplinary contributions. Clayton Korte creates places that celebrate their environment and exist where architecture, interiors, authenticity, and craft meet.

claytonkorte.com

 

Charlap Hyman & Herrero

New York; Los Angeles

Charlap Hyman & Herrero (CHH) takes an integrated approach to conceptualizing and executing spaces. Working in various typologies, CHH considers divergent art forms and aims to create spaces that become worlds unto themselves, as Gesamtkunstwerk is at the core of the firm’s objective.

ch-herrero.com

 

Chen + Suchart Studio

Scottsdale, Arizona

Chen + Suchart Studio works at scales ranging from small, well-crafted projects and single-family residences to largerscale urban designs. The common thread between all projects undertaken in the studio is the transcendence of style.

chensuchartstudio.com

East Village Apartment by GRT Architects (Nicole Franzen)

Bar Enza by Home Studios (Brian W. Ferry)

Common Works Architects

Oklahoma City

Common Works Architects is an architecture and design studio established by Asa Highsmith in 2015. Often faced with budget and craft limitations, the practice leverages simple, small moves to achieve greater effects.

commonworks.archi

 

Deborah Berke Partners

New York

For over 30 years, Deborah Berke Partners has designed true-to-place projects. Each member of the firm’s design leadership possesses a deep and distinct area of expertise; together, the office creates projects with unprecedented programs and unexpected architectural expressions.

dberke.com

 

Design, Bitches

Los Angeles

Founded in 2010 by Catherine Johnson and Rebecca Rudolph, Design, Bitches possesses a bold and irreverent vision that makes architecture significant in daily life. Their multidisciplinary firm draws inspiration from the duo’s eclectic expertise in design, art, and pop culture.

designbitches.com

 

Frederick Tang Architecture

Brooklyn, New York

Frederick Tang Architecture is a ten-person studio that provides architecture and design services as well as custom offerings in branding, graphic, product, and experience design. The studio emphasizes experimentation, curiosity, and collaboration in its iterative design process.

fredericktang.com

 

Frida Escobedo

Mexico City

Frida Escobedo established her studio in 2006. In 2018 she became the youngest architect to design the prestigious Serpentine Pavilion in London. Earlier this year, she was selected to realize the renovation of The Met’s modern and contemporary galleries.

fridaescobedo.com

 

GRT Architects

Brooklyn, New York

GRT’s partners, Tal Schori and Rustam-Marc Mehta, met in third grade. Since founding GRT in 2014, they have established a trademark of work that marries confidently voiced aesthetics with technical excellence, often alongside or in dialogue with a historical fabric.

grtarchitects.com

 

HASTINGS

Nashville, Tennessee

Founded in 1985, HASTINGS is deeply committed to design and community. It produces award-winning sustainable architecture that positively impacts clients and society at large. HASTINGS’s services include architecture, interior design, planning, and sustainability consulting.

hastingsarchitecture.com

 

Home Studios

Brooklyn, New York

Former fiction editor Oliver Haslegrave founded Home Studios, a close-knit, collaborative team of 15 with accomplished backgrounds in architecture, interiors, custom fabrication and fine art to illuminate the stories of clients through a process that is intuitive, exacting, and attentive.

homestudios.nyc

 

Höweler + Yoon

Boston

Höweler + Yoon is an architecture practice and creative studio that believes design is an instrument for imagining and implementing change. For 18 years, the firm has built a reputation for work that is formally and technologically innovative, socially engaged, and conceptually rigorous.

howeleryoon.com

 

HR DESIGN DEPT

Houston

Hughes Rowell Design Dept is an architecture studio founded in 2018 with the belief that architecture should be collaborative, responsive, and responsible. The office specializes in modern residential and commercial projects.

hrdesigndept.com

 

Ivy Studio

Montreal

Ivy Studio is an office of architecture that reimagines the boundaries of design. The firm’s collaborative approach challenges industry standards to create unique spaces that propel brands further.

ivystudio.ca

 

Johnston Marklee

Los Angeles

Established in 1998, Johnston Marklee, led by founding partners Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee, has been recognized nationally and internationally with over 40 major awards and numerous publications. The office’s projects are diverse in scale and type and span 14 countries.

johnstonmarklee.com

 

Katherine Hogan Architects

Raleigh, North Carolina

Katherine Hogan Architects is a woman-owned firm that has crafted a diverse body of work. The office is recognized for using ordinary materials in inventive ways and is committed to working on projects that make a difference in its community.

katherinehoganarchitects.com

 

Kwong Von Glinow

Chicago

Kwong Von Glinow is founded on the belief that architecture is meant to be enjoyed. Taking an optimistic and explorative approach, the office focuses on creating innovative living environments, places for cultural engagement, urban public space, and contemporary workspaces.

kwongvonglinow.com

 

Landry Smith Architect

Portland, Oregon

Landry Smith Architect is a conceptually driven office interested in the opportunities afforded by precise decision-making and the fundamentals of the architectural discipline to achieve maximum effect. This strategy aims to produce work that is at once essential and open-ended.

landrysmith.com

The Bellslip by Leong Leong (Naho Kubota)

James Avery Office by Michael Hsu Office of Architecture (Chase Daniel)

Leckie Studio Architecture + Design

Vancouver

Leckie Studio Architecture + Design was founded in 2015 by principal architect Michael Leckie. The office engages in the practice of design across a range of scales and media and seeks to initiate cultural change through design.

leckiestudio.com

 

Leong Leong

New York; Los Angeles

Founded in 2009, Leong Leong is a minority-owned architecture firm and creative agency that uses the power of design to advance visionary social agendas within the built environment for institutions, cultural enterprises, and forward-thinking clients.

leong-leong.com

 

Michael K Chen Architecture

New York

Michael K Chen Architecture (MKCA) provides innovative and superbly crafted work for clients seeking thoughtful and considered design. The office’s approach is informed by curiosity and a love of tinkering, drawing, discourse, and making.

mkca.com

 

Marlon Blackwell Architects

Fayetteville, Arkansas

Since 1990, Marlon Blackwell Architects has designed award-winning, environmentally responsive projects. The office believes that architecture can happen anywhere, at any scale, at any budget—for anyone. It uses an economy of means to deliver maximum meaning.

marlonblackwell.com

 

Michael Hsu Office of Architecture

Austin, Texas; Houston

Founded in 2005, Michael Hsu Office of Architecture believes that design is for everyone. The office designs with empathy and to elicit emotion. It believes in the active collaboration of designer, client, and artisan to create a sense of well-being.

hsuoffice.com

 

Murray Legge Architects

Austin, Texas

The work of Murray Legge Architects reveals the extraordinary opportunities that exist in the ordinary. Employing a creative process that deeply considers practical issues of design, the office examines how materials, space, and light create places that resonate and engage.

murraylegge.com

 

Norman Kelley

Chicago

Founded in 2012 by Carrie Norman and Thomas Kelley, Norman Kelley works in the fields of residential architecture, commercial interiors, furniture design, exhibition design, and design criticism. Its process is collaborative, sensitive to place, and irreverent to tradition.

normankelley.us

 

OJT

New Orleans

Led by Jonathan Tate, OJT is an architecture and urban design practice focused on thoughtful design. Its work varies in project type and scale. The office brings the same intensity of imagination and invention to everything it does.

officejt.com

The Audrey Irmas Pavilion by OMA New York (Jason O’Rear)

1255 House by Omar Gandhi Architect (Adrian Ozimek)

OMA New York

Rotterdam; Hong Kong; New York; Queensland, Australia; Doha, Qatar

OMA is an international practice operating within the traditional boundaries of architecture and urbanism. The office is led by eight partners: Rem Koolhaas, Reinier de Graaf, Ellen van Loon, Shohei Shigematsu, Iyad Alsaka, Chris van Duijn, Jason Long, and David Gianotten.

oma.com

 

Olson Kundig

Seattle; New York

Olson Kundig is led by 14 principals/ owners who are supported by a team of over 250. Every completed project manifests a “macro-to-micro” level of attention, from the big ideas to the smallest details.

olsonkundig.com

 

Omar Gandhi Architect

Halifax, Nova Scotia; Toronto

Founded in 2010, Omar Gandhi Architect is an award-winning modern architecture studio.

omargandhi.com

 

Only If—

Brooklyn, New York

Only If— is a design practice for architecture and urbanism founded in 2013 by Adam Snow Frampton and Karolina Czeczek. The office focuses on fundamental questions and potentials with the ambition to create clarity and simplicity within often-complex circumstances and constraints.

only-if.com

 

Part Office

Los Angeles

Part Office is a design studio founded by Kristin Korven and Jeff Kaplon in 2015. The office works on projects of all scales, from singular objects to large developments (with many homes in between).

partoffice.com

 

Pentagon

Los Angeles

Pentagon was founded in 2014 by Ben Crawford, Tyler McMartin, Paul Stoelting, Dale Strong, and Paul Trussler.

pentagon.la

 

Pérez Palacios Arquitectos Asociados

Mexico City

Pérez Palacios Arquitectos Asociados (PPAA) is driven by an architecture of ideas over an architecture of forms. The office conceives of architecture as an open medium, one that is constantly tested. PPAA follows an inclination for nature to create sensorial atmospheres.

perezpalacios.mx

 

Ravi Handa Architect

Montreal

Ravi Handa is a licensed architect whose practice is dedicated to what physical space makes us feel. By optimizing space, quality of light, and energy consumption, he believes architecture can inspire serenity, highlighting our interconnectedness to our environment.

rha.works

 

Shin Shin

Los Angeles; Detroit

Shin Shin Architecture is a female and minority-owned architecture and design firm cofounded by sisters Melissa and Amanda Shin. The office provides a full-service architectural experience for residential, commercial, and cultural projects of all scales.

shinshinarch.com

Mt. Washington House by Part Office (Taiyo Watanabe)

Upper West Side Apartment by Worrell Yeung (Brooke Holm)

SO – IL

Brooklyn, New York

Diverse in origin, SO – IL’s team of collaborators speaks a dozen languages and is informed by global narratives and perspectives. Working with ambitious clients, the office explores how the creation of environments and objects inspires lasting positive intellectual and societal engagement.

so-il.org

 

Spiegel Aihara Workshop

San Francisco

Spiegel Aihara Workshop (SAW) is a transdisciplinary design firm operating at the nexus of architecture, landscape, and urban design, allowing the company to work across scales and timelines at the onset of a project. SAW views design as a collaborative, research-based process.

sawinc.com

 

Steven Holl Architects

New York; Beijing

Steven Holl Architects (SHA) is a 28-person architecture and urban design office that works globally from two locations. SHA is recognized for its ability to shape space and light with great contextual sensitivity and to catalyze each project’s unique qualities.

stevenholl.com

 

UNDECORATED

Detroit

Ishtiaq Jabir Rafiuddin started UNDECORATED in 2017. Previously, he cofounded the co-working space Based In and the visualization studio Mimaj and worked for REX and OMA. Born in Bangladesh, Rafiuddin has lived in Dhaka, New York, Buffalo, Istanbul, and Detroit.

undecorated.us

 

Utile

Boston

Utile thrives on solving complex urban problems in intelligent, pragmatic ways. From theoretical issues that frame policy to the practical implementation of architectural commissions, the office uses a rigorous, research-based approach to find the best answers.

utiledesign.com

 

Woods + Dangaran

Los Angeles

Woods + Dangaran creates modern homes through dialogue and exploration. The office collaborates with its clients throughout the design process and works with trusted trades persons to deliver work that is uncompromising in its craftsmanship.

woodsdangaran.com

 

WORKac

New York

WORKac creates architecture and strategic planning concepts at the intersection of the urban, the rural, and the natural. The office strives to develop intelligent and shared infrastructures and to achieve a more careful integration between architecture, landscape, and ecological systems.

work.ac

 

Worrell Yeung

Brooklyn, New York

Led by Max Worrell and Jejon Yeung, the practice synthesizes complex systems and needs into clear solutions. The office approaches conceptualization and construction with equal concern, making work that appears simple and unembellished but is rooted in rigorous, innovative design.

worrellyeung.com